Hospital's Autism Center Recognized For Patient-Centered Care

Cloe Poisson

Evan pretends to be a puppy dog during a check up with his psychiatrist Dr. Patricia Aguayo (center) at the Hospital for Special Care's Autism Center, as Evan's mom, Carol Marcantonio, (right) looks on.

Evan pretends to be a puppy dog during a check up with his psychiatrist Dr. Patricia Aguayo (center) at the Hospital for Special Care's Autism Center, as Evan's mom, Carol Marcantonio, (right) looks on. (Cloe Poisson)

NEW BRITAIN – When the Hospital for Special Care opened its autism center three years ago in the former Mary Immaculate Academy on Corbin Avenue, the founders instinctively involved the children's doctors, schools, and families in the treatment, and never forgot the children's social and recreational needs.

There is jargon for this --- "patient-centered treatment," "integrated care" – and the center's staff was quietly making a mark nationally with the connective tissue it had built around the diagnostic evaluations, the psychiatric, psychological, and pediatric services, and the speech and occupational therapy it provided to young people with autism.

Thursday, the center became the first in the nation to be recognized as a "patient-centered specialty practice" for autism-spectrum disorders by the National Committee on Quality Assurance in Washington D.C. The group has been assessing and recognizing medical and healthcare programs for 25 years.

The panel looks for approaches that reduce redundancy and avoid negative patient experiences arising from poorly coordinated care, said Apoorva Stull, a spokeswoman for the national committee. The panel wants to see information being shared among specialists and primary-care doctors, and the patient, the family, and other caregivers treated as partners.

Jennifer Bogin, who directs the autism program at the Department of Developmental Services, said the designation was important recognition for the work of the center, and the people associated with it.

"So now we maintain these quality measures going forward," Dr. Patricia Aguayo, the center's child psychiatrist, said after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Lynn Ricci, the hospital's chief operating officer, and others had spoken at a gathering in the center's large community room.

"We function like a little hub," Aguayo said, describing how the treatment and the activities encircle the young patients.

In the center of the hub is Elizabeth Sytulek, the care coordinator who helps families with obtaining their children's prescription drugs and lab work, and arranging the inevitable appointments with specialists outside the center.

"Our kids don't like to go to other appointments," Sytulek said of the center's patients.

One child doesn't like to get out of the car, so Aguayo puts on her coat and goes out to the parking lot to meet with the child in the car, Ricci said.

Leah Bailey Moon said the center "welcomed with open arms" her non-profit group that holds social events and exercise classes for children and young adults with autism at night and on weekends – a time when they are often isolated.

"The center opened up its facilities and offered us expertise, because they know how important it is for the children and the families to be engaged outside the home," said Bailey Moon, whose grandson, Jack, 10, has autism. "We built a support network around him."

The children treated at the center are challenging and complex, Ricci said, and it's critical that the center communicate well with the families, "because they are overwhelmed when they receive that initial diagnosis."

It turns out the center had quickly developed into a model program – except for two aspects: it lacked an electronic medical record-keeping system and it didn't have a care coordinator, someone whose job it was to follow each case and work with the families, the practitioners, and the young patients.

Malloy and the legislature stepped in with funding for the records system, which went online last year, and Sytulek, a nurse with expertise in pediatrics and early childhood development, came over from Hartford Healthcare Medical Group.

One of the program's strongest links is with the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford. John Molteni, a psychologist and behaviorist, runs the Institute for Autism and Behavioral Studies at St. Joseph, and directs the autism center at the Hospital of Special Care.

St. Joseph has produced at least 40 trained behaviorists since 2009, and is turning them out as fast as it can, Molteni said. Ricci said there has long been a shortage of behaviorists in the field.